China Digital Times (CDT) » North Koreahttp://chinadigitaltimes.net
Covering China from CyberspaceSat, 01 Aug 2015 02:49:53 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.3China Digital Timeshttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/wp-content/themes/cdt/images/feedlogo.pnghttp://chinadigitaltimes.net
Kickstarting Journalism on Chinahttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/04/kickstarting-journalism-on-china/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/04/kickstarting-journalism-on-china/#commentsWed, 22 Apr 2015 07:21:14 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=183065In recent years, a number of Chinese journalists have turned to crowdfunding to support their work. Now, three new crowdfunding projects are seeking support for journalism projects in China.

Despite the restrictions, creative expression still flourishes in China. Large cities, like Beijing and Shanghai, for example, are home to thriving artist and startup communities. Meanwhile, independent journalists and media makers are pushing the barriers of censorship every day, and Internet users continue to find innovative ways to communicate.

In a series of multimedia profiles, we will reach out to the artists, campaigners and entrepreneurs in the big cities and search for visionaries throughout the country to tell the stories of how they navigate difficult circumstances to bring about the change they want to see in China. [Source]

Working along the Chinese – North Korea border in 2013, I witnessed first hand how divergent the stories on the ground were from what I was seeing on the news at the time.

[…] Today our specialist news site NK News tries to cover as much unique material as we can on North Korea every day, but working from resources generated through a modest subscription system, there are real limitations on the amount of on­-the­-ground reporting we’re able to do in places like the China – DPRK border area.

That’s why today we’re asking for your help. With $16,000 of extra resources this year we’ll send two journalists for extended periods to China. [Source]

Environmental reporting anywhere in the world is a challenging profession that requires access to scientific and technological support, as well as media resources. In China, it is further complicated by a lack of transparency, censorship, and the political repression of journalists and bloggers. Reporters may face real personal risks. Citizen journalists have the least protection of all. The China Environmental Press Awards legitimise and encourage these brave individuals.

Previous winners, chosen by a jury of leading Chinese reporters, environmentalists and academics, include a microblogger who challenged steel, paper and chemical companies to disclose environmental information; an activist who challenged his local environmental official to swim in his local waterway, prompting a popular, viral campaign; and a retired forestry official who exposed the destruction of mangrove forests on Hainan Island. [Source]

While a responsible approach to the assignment means situations like the 2009 imprisonment of American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling in North Korea can hopefully be avoided, arbitrary detention on the Chinese side – most likely for short periods of time – cannot be discounted.

Nor can the potential expulsion of our journalists mid-assignment from PRC territory.

[… I]n the event an expulsion takes place mid-assignment, it is possible that only limited reporting outcomes will be assured from the project. [Source]

It is also very important, though unfortunate, that if you are a Chinese citizen, please DO NOT donate to this [chinafile] campaign. We need to stay within the law and can only crowd-fund outside of China. Thank you for your understanding and if you’d like to support us, we welcome your encouragement in the comments section! [Source]

[…] Hollywood’s biggest worry about freedom of expression is not North Korea, or terrorist groups, or those who make anonymous threats to movie theaters. And celebrating our “freedom” over North Korea, an impoverished state of 25 million, is both sad and laughable.

The far bigger worry is self-censorship — and there’s no bigger threat here than China. The Chinese don’t hate us because they are like us, or because they are not. In fact, they don’t hate us at all. Beijing poses a major censorship threat because the ruling Chinese Communist Party is keenly sensitive to criticism and has the economic muscle to punish those in Hollywood who make films that displease it.

In other words, the bizarre series of events that caused The Interview to be briefly censored are a distraction from China, Hollywood’s biggest censorship problem.

[…] Consider what would have happened if Rogen and Franco had pitched a movie about two bumbling journalists contracted by the CIA to assassinate Chinese President Xi Jinping — another authoritarian leader who is the commander of a massive army, sits atop a massive nuclear arsenal, and poses a strategic threat to the United States.

[…] No major studio today would dare greenlight a film that would be that offensive to the Chinese Communist Party: the financial costs could be immense. A film studio that was even known to have publicly floated an idea such as this could expect to be effectively blacklisted from working with Beijing — and China is where Hollywood studios will make an increasingly large percentage of their money in coming years. […] [Source]

The council meeting on North Korea came after a rare procedural vote sparked by China’s objections to the inclusion of North Korea on the council’s agenda.

There were 11 votes in favor, two against and two abstentions. Russia and China voted against the inclusion of North Korea on the council’s agenda, but as there are no vetoes in procedural votes of the council, the Chinese attempt to defeat the measure failed.

The last time the council held a procedural vote was in 2006, when it added Myanmar to its agenda. Until now, the council’s discussions of North Korea have been limited to its nuclear weapons program. But with Monday’s vote, all aspects of the country can now be scrutinized by the 15-nation body.

Before the vote, China U.N. Ambassador Liu Jieyi said “the Security Council is not the forum to get involved in human rights issues” and it “should refrain from doing anything that might cause an escalation.” [Source]

China’s Ambassador Liu Jieyi said his nation objected to “imposing pressure against other countries with the pretext of human-rights issues.”

North Korea’s Ambassador Ja Song Nam submitted a letter to the Security Council condemning the UN criticism as “fabricated on the basis of plots, lies and misinformation and forced by the United States and other hostile countries in a highhanded and arbitrary manner.”

Two UN officials briefed the council on the regime’s alleged crimes against humanity, from forced prostitution and torture to an extensive system of political prison camps.

Added to that condemnation was the U.S. assertion, denied by North Korea, that it was behind the attack on Sony’s computers. The intrusion exposed Hollywood secrets, destroyed company data and caused the studio to cancel the release of “The Interview,” a satire about two American journalists involved in a CIA plot to kill Kim. Sony has said it’s looking for a new way to release the film after U.S. theater chains refused to show it due to online threats of violence. [Source]

The foreign ministry will cooperate with other Chinese agencies including the Cyberspace Administration to conduct a preliminary investigation, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the probe hasn’t been made public. The decision was made after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke by phone on Dec. 21 with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

[…] “China would support the U.S. call for cooperation on the Sony cyber-hacking case; it could provide relevant intelligence,” said Liu [Ming, director of the Korean Peninsula Research Center at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences]. “What Beijing can do may be limited because China-North Korea ties are lousy, and Beijing doesn’t have as much sway over Pyongyang as is perceived.”

The sensitive nature of the incident also means Beijing will be cautious in any cooperation with U.S. authorities, according to Liu.

“It will create many problems if Beijing gets involved too much, because cyber-hacking is always a thorn in side in the Sino-U.S. relations and Americans accuse the Chinese of doing cyber-attacks,” Liu said. [Source]

North Korea relies on China for Internet connectivity, partially due to longstanding ties between the two nations and partly because it has few options. North Korea borders just three countries: South Korea, with which it is still technically at war, Russia and China. The Chinese Internet is well developed and the Russian border is far from Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, making China a good choice.

A connection from China Unicom into the country first appeared in late 2010. Until then, North Korea had no full-time connection to the Internet — just an email service that relayed messages every hour or so.

The country was brought online by Star, a joint venture between the Korea Posts and Telecommunications Co. and Thailand’s Loxley Pacific. It provides connectivity to a handful of websites in Pyongyang and those lucky enough to be permitted Internet access: foreigners in the country, senior students at elite universities, scientists and a handful of others. Usage is understood to be closely monitored.

And that’s it. There are no other known Internet connections. [Source]

According to this view that China is robustly promoting worldwide, the Internet should operate under the laws and rules of the given nation-state across whose territory information is transmitted.

Lu also wrote that “It is the essence of the development of the Internet that the Internet should bring peace and security to humans [and] should deny access to criminals and terrorists.”

[…] By the logic of Lu Wei, and by his declaration against the use of Internet for criminal activity and terrorist threats, China is thus obliged to aid the U.S. in denying North Korea access to the means of launching the kind of attacks it has on Sony and America’s moviegoing audiences. [Source]

“China has cleaned up the D.P.R.K.’s mess too many times,” General Wang wrote in The Global Times, using the initials of North Korea’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “But it doesn’t have to do that in the future.”

Of the government in North Korea, he said: “If an administration isn’t supported by the people, ‘collapse’ is just a matter of time.” Moreover, North Korea had violated the spirit of the mutual defense treaty with China, he said, by failing to consult China on its nuclear weapons program, which has created instability in Northeast Asia.

The significance of General Wang’s article was given greater weight because he wrote it in reply to another Global Times article by a Chinese expert on North Korea, Prof. Li Dunqiu, who took a more traditional approach, arguing that North Korea was a strategic asset that China should not abandon. Mr. Li is a former director of the Office of Korean Affairs at China’s State Council.

In a debate that unfolded among other commentators in the pages of Global Times, a state-run newspaper, after the duel between General Wang and Mr. Li, the general’s point of view — that North Korea represented a strategic liability — got considerable support. General Wang is known as a princeling general: His father, Wang Jianqing, led Mao Zedong’s troops in the fight against the Japanese in Nanjing at the end of World War II. […] [Source]

Any civilized world will oppose hacker attacks or terror threats. But a movie like The Interview, which makes fun of the leader of an enemy of the US, is nothing to be proud of for Hollywood and US society.

Americans always believe they can jab at other countries’ leaders just because they are free to criticize or make fun of their own state leaders. Actually the countries targeted in Hollywood movies are very selective, such as the Cold War era’s Soviet Union, North Korea and Iran.

China used to be also portrayed in a negative light occasionally. Now that the Chinese market has become a gold mine for US movies, Hollywood has begun to show an increasingly friendly face, just in order to attract more Chinese viewers.

[…] No matter how the US society looks at North Korea and Kim Jong-un, Kim is still the leader of the country. The vicious mocking of Kim is only a result of senseless cultural arrogance.

The US society stands on the upper stream of global competition of culture. It needs to show some good manners instead of being too aggressive. The American elites should not just speak like gentlemen, but behave like them. [Source]

China said on Monday it opposed all forms of cyberattacks but there was no proof that North Korea was responsible for the hacking of Sony Pictures, as the United States has said.

“Before making any conclusions there has to be a full (accounting of) the facts and foundation,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said. “China will handle it in accordance with relevant international and Chinese laws according to the facts.”

She said Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi “reaffirmed China’s relevant position, emphasizing China opposes all forms of cyberattacks and cyber terrorism” in a conversation with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday. [Source]

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/12/chinese-annoyance-north-korea-bubbles-surface/feed/0North Korea Funnels Crystal Meth Into Chinahttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/11/north-korea-funnels-crystal-meth-china/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/11/north-korea-funnels-crystal-meth-china/#commentsSat, 29 Nov 2014 03:23:16 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=179526Tania Branigan at The Guardian reports that a North Korean professor has been arrested for operating a crystal meth laboratory. The lab is one of many narcotics production sties in North Korea that has contributed to the upsurge in illegal drug trafficking into neighboring China.

The academic, from a pharmaceutical college, was arrested for running a large methamphetamine laboratory, according to a North Korean interior ministry document cited by South Korean media.

The director of China’s narcotics control bureau warned last week that the country was facing “a grim task in curbing synthetic drugs”, particularly methamphetamines.

[…] South Korea news site Dong-a Ilbo claimed that Chinese police had seized $60m worth of North Korean-produced drugs in 2010.

China’s attempts to tackle the problem have included speedboat anti-drug patrols along the Yalu river border, but it has been unable to halt the flow: last year, police in Linjiang, Jilin, seized 4.5lb of methamphetamines with an estimated street value of 2m yuan (about £200,000), while colleagues in Liaoning province seized 23.3kg in a “cross-border” smuggling case.

[…] The North has attacked all claims of drug production as a politically motivated smear. [Source]

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/11/north-korea-funnels-crystal-meth-china/feed/0China Asked to Back ICC Case Against North Koreahttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/10/china-asked-back-u-n-rights-case-north-korea/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/10/china-asked-back-u-n-rights-case-north-korea/#commentsFri, 24 Oct 2014 00:23:40 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=178448The U.N.’s chief investigator into North Korean human rights issues has asked China to support an International Criminal Court case against Pyongyang, rejecting the widespread assumption that Beijing will inevitably shield its neighbor and ally. From Mirjam Donath at Reuters:

Michael Kirby, a former Australian judge who led the independent U.N. inquiry into alleged human rights abuses in North Korea, told reporters at U.N. headquarters that it was by no means certain Beijing would block an ICC referral.

“I don’t think a veto should be assumed,” Kirby said. “China is a very great pal with great responsibilities as a permanent member. Veto is not the way China does international diplomacy. China tends to find another way.”

[…] Kirby emphasized that China has only 10 vetoes, the lowest number of any of the five permanent members. That is a fraction of the dozens of times Russia and the United States have vetoed resolutions in the 15-nation council. [Source]

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/10/week-cdt-october-17-2014/feed/0Leader of the Week: Kim Fatty IIIhttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/10/leader-week-kim-fatty-iii/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/10/leader-week-kim-fatty-iii/#commentsWed, 15 Oct 2014 07:00:28 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=178113Word of the Week comes from the Grass-Mud Horse Lexicon, a glossary of terms created by Chinese netizens and encountered in online political discussions. These are the words of China’s online “resistance discourse,” used to mock and subvert the official language around censorship and political correctness.

悬壶问茶: Uncle Doorman Says: I asked Uncle Doorman, “Why does Kim Fatty III have to play hide-and-seek? @门卫大爷 says, “Kim Fatty III has three goals: one, to test the loyalty of his cadres; two, to see how the U.S., U.K., Japan, and South Korea react; and three, to slap Chinese intellectuals in the face. (October 14, 2014)

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/10/leader-week-kim-fatty-iii/feed/0Minitrue: Kim Jong Un’s Absencehttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/10/minitrue-kim-jong-uns-absence/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/10/minitrue-kim-jong-uns-absence/#commentsFri, 10 Oct 2014 19:59:15 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=178025The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online. The name of the issuing body has been omitted to protect the source.

Regarding news of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s absence from public appearance, media must not make unauthorized conjecture or commentary. Websites must take note, investigate, and control netizen commentary. (October 10, 2014)

Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. The date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source.

The Garratts were spies in disguise as ordinary citizens, the graphic claims. It lists “targeting areas to collect information while disguised as ordinary citizens” as surveillance that is one of the “regular missions of spies.”

[…] The Global Times graphic places the Garratts in the company of Wang Qingjian, a People’s Liberation Army senior colonel who was working for Japan and helped to bug the office of the Chinese ambassador in Tokyo; of Cai Xiaohong, a senior Chinese official in Hong Kong who was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to give secrets to the British; and of Lu Jianhua, a sociologist who established ties with the Chinese president’s office and was sentenced to 20 years in jail for passing secrets to the U.S., Japan and Taiwan.

According to the Global Times, punishment for state secrets violations can include deportation for diplomatic staff, an exchange of spies, up to seven years in jail for “intentionally or negligently” divulging state secrets, or death for “stealing, spying or purchasing military secrets for agencies, organizations or individuals outside China.” [Source]

The Global Times’ publication, titled “Peeking in China: Spying targets and tactics,” can be accessed here.

Paul Yoo at first thought the text was a joke, or perhaps spam. “Chinese secrets are like the heavens and the big mountains. Do not reveal or talk about them,” read the cryptic message.

[…] A week later, police arrived at his door in the northeastern Chinese city where Mr. Yoo, a South Korean missionary, had lived untroubled by authorities for years in a country where proselytizing by foreigners is, officially, illegal.

China is turning a blind eye no longer. The knock on Mr. Yoo’s door two years ago marked the beginning of a quiet forced evacuation of foreign missionaries, including hundreds of South Koreans, some of whom have worked to train and convert Chinese, and others who have helped Christian defectors from North Korea. [Source]

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/08/china-broadens-crackdown-foreign-missionaries/feed/0Crackdown on Christian Groups by N. Korea Borderhttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/08/crack-christian-groups-along-north-korea-border/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/08/crack-christian-groups-along-north-korea-border/#commentsTue, 12 Aug 2014 05:35:02 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=176172Reuters’ Megha Rajagopalan and James Pearson report that China is clamping down on Christian missionary groups in a bid to stem the flow of immigrants from North Korea.

China is cracking down on Christian charity groups near its border with North Korea, missionaries and aid groups say, with hundreds of members of the community forced to leave the country and some who remain describing an atmosphere of fear.

The sweep along the frontier is believed to be aimed at closing off support to North Koreans who flee persecution and poverty in their homeland and illegally enter China before going on to other nations, usually ending up in South Korea.

[…] Beijing has not charged anyone with any crime, but two sources with direct knowledge say a Korean-American man who ran a vocational school in the border town of Tumen was being investigated by Chinese authorities.

[…] As many as one third of the 3,000 South Korean missionaries working in China, largely near the North Korean border, have been forced out, most by having their visas refused, said Simon Suh, a Christian pastor who runs an orphanage in Yanji, a city near Tumen. [Source]

Doing anything that could be seen as overtly religious along the sensitive border with North Korea was risky, experts said.

“North Korean authorities cooperate really closely with China basically throughout the border region… of course there is more risk along the border,” said Adam Cathcart, a specialist on China-North Korea ties at the University of Leeds.

The Garratts did little to hide their Christianity, according to people who had been to their Dandong cafe, which they said was known as a meeting point for foreign Christians in the area.

“It couldn’t be any more Christian. It’s always busy and they play Christian rock music in there,” said Gareth Johnson of Young Pioneer Tours, a travel company based in China that takes tourists to North Korea and who has visited the shop. [Source]

“North Star Aid seeks to serve the people of North Korea primarily through providing humanitarian aid,” the charity’s website says. (In filings, Five Stones [Church] says its own good works include “food aid, clothing, school supplies and Bible training in Asia.”) Its photo gallery shows pictures of its people bringing flour, soy milk, and other food, as well as school and medical supplies, into North Korea.

[…] But in China, their work was different. According to a sermon Kevin delivered to a Surrey, B.C., church in November and heard by Agence France-Presse, North Koreans often come to a “training house” in Dandong, he said, and “99 per cent of the people we meet go back to North Korea, because they have to preach the gospel in North Korea, because God has compelled them to go.”

The Garratts also used their presence in Dandong to reach the local population. They held a weekly Sunday church service at their home, and kept a Bible on a rack of novels and other literature inside their coffee shop. Those books were missing on Tuesday, presumed to be confiscated by the authorities. [Source]

A second son, Peter Garratt, who lives in Dandong with his parents, said in an email to Canada’s CBC News that he received a call from the State Security Bureau in Dandong asking him to come in.

“They also asked me to pick up some clothes and toiletries for them, so I assume they are at the bureau,” he wrote.

In an earlier on-air interview with CBC News television, Peter Garratt said that at first he thought the news was a joke.

“It sounds ridiculous,” he said. “Military secrets? It sounds like something out of a movie or something. Those are the accusations, but I have no idea where they are coming from or how it even came about.” [Source]

The Dandong region is a sensitive military area for China, and the border crossing is a key trade lifeline for nuclear-armed, diplomatically isolated North Korea.

It is also a focus for foreign Christian groups, including some from South Korea, with some working to assist North Koreans who secretly cross the border to escape from hardship and repression in their homeland.

[…] In an audio file posted on the website of the Terra Nova church in Surrey, British Columbia, and heard by AFP, Kevin Garratt tells the congregation: “We’re China based, we’re North Korea focused, but we’re Jesus centered.”

“God said, in a prayer meeting, go to Dandong and I’ll meet you there, and he said start a coffee house,” he said in a guest sermon dated November last year.

[…] “We’re trying to reach North Korea with God, with Jesus, and practical assistance.” [Source]

“I think it’s just the relations between Canada and China right now are quite heated, especially over all the hacking accusations that have gone on over the last two weeks … from what I can tell, the actual accusations have nothing to do with my parents, it’s just that they happen to be Canadian in a place of vulnerability.​” [Source]

[… O]n Monday, the Vancouver couple – who have been living in China since 1984 – stood accused by Chinese authorities of espionage and stealing state secrets. Their immediate whereabouts were unknown and calls to their coffee shop went unanswered.

[…] What constitutes a “state secret” is extremely nebulous in China, legally defined only as “matters that are classified as state secrets by the national State Secrets Bureau” – effectively leaving interpretation up to the authorities.

Nonetheless, theft of state secrets is a very serious crime in China, punishable with life in prison, or the death penalty in certain circumstances. [Source]

The report notes speculation about ulterior motives behind the case. Some suggest the goal may be restriction of missionaries operating in North Korea, with whom the café was reportedly popular, or retaliation for last week’s hacking accusations aimed at China. From David Ljunggren and Alastair Sharp at Reuters on Friday:

Canada said on Tuesday “a highly sophisticated Chinese state-sponsored actor” had broken into the National Research Council, a leading body that works with major companies such as aircraft and train maker Bombardier Inc (BBDb.TO). Beijing on Thursday accused Canada of making irresponsible accusations that lacked credible evidence.

While Canada did not give details of the attack, CrowdStrike Chief Technology Officer Dmitri Alperovitch said it was similar to other hacking campaigns launched by a unit of the People’s Liberation Army that his company has nicknamed ‘Putter Panda.’ The group, Unit 61486, has thousands of people and conducts intelligence on satellite and aerospace industries, he said.

[…] A former Canadian cabinet minister, Stockwell Day, separately confirmed for the first time on Thursday that Chinese operators were suspected of hacking into the Finance Department and the Treasury Board, a body with overall responsibility for government spending, in 2011. [Source]

Cdn govt accusations that #China hacked a national research orgn came as Cdn FM was in Beijing. A planned media event was abruptly canceled.

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/08/canadian-coffee-shop-owners-detained-state-secrets/feed/0In South Korea, Xi Looks to Increase Regional Clouthttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/07/xi-goes-south-korea-china-looks-increase-regional-clout/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/07/xi-goes-south-korea-china-looks-increase-regional-clout/#commentsSat, 05 Jul 2014 14:09:01 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=174753President Xi Jinping arrived in South Korea on Thursday for a state visit that is seen as reflecting a shift in regional order. Alastair Gale, Yuka Hayashi, and Brian Spegele of the Wall Street Journal report:

China and South Korea pledged to deepen ties on the same day as Japan said it would ease some sanctions against North Korea, twin moves that reinforced the shifting dynamics in a region in which both Beijing and Tokyo are seeking to assert more power.

[…] A repositioning has been under way for several years, as nations have sought to negotiate their roles amid China’s global rise. Over the past decade, Japan’s economic malaise encouraged South Korea to build up economic ties with China, now Seoul’s biggest trading partner. Under Ms. Park, South Korea has also come to see Beijing as a partner, rather than a hurdle, in dealing with North Korea.

As for Pyongyang, which has long viewed Japan as a sworn enemy, analysts say worsening ties with both Beijing and Seoul have prompted it to turn to Tokyo in its hunt for much-needed cash.

[…] The visit to Seoul by Mr. Xi comes as Beijing has grown concerned over stability in its backyard, including ongoing provocations by Pyongyang. North Korea has fired a series of short-range missiles from its coast into the sea in recent days and on Thursday vowed to continue doing so despite its now-routine breach of a United Nations’ ban on ballistic missile tests. [Source]

Expectations were high that Xi’s summit with South Korea’s president Park Geun-hye would expand an economic and business relationship that has flourished in the past decade. Xi was accompanied by 250 business executives including luminaries such as Jack Ma, founder of the Alibaba e-commerce empire, and Robin Li, chairman of search engine Baidu. The Korea Chamber of Commerce said it was the biggest ever foreign business delegation to South Korea.

A statement from South Korea’s finance ministry and central bank said the South Korean won will become directly exchangeable with the yuan, joining major currencies such as the U.S. dollar, Japanese yen and euro that are convertible with the Chinese currency. The decision also makes the yuan only the second currency after the U.S. dollar that is directly convertible with the won.

At a press conference, Park said South Korea and China will aim to complete long-running free trade talks by the end of this year. [Source]

The leaders of China and South Korea sent a strong message to North Korea on Thursday, saying they were united in their opposition to the development of nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula, though they fell short on how they would pursue that goal.

After a three-hour meeting, China’s president, Xi Jinping, and South Korea’s leader, Park Geun-hye, issued a joint statement that smoothed over the differences in approach that have stalled a more aggressive stance toward the unabated development of nuclear weapons by North Korea, and its leader, Kim Jong-un, China’s ally.

Their joint communiqué said that the “two countries reaffirm their firm opposition to the development of nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula,” phraseology that the Chinese have always preferred because it does not specifically cite North Korea.

With Mr. Xi standing beside her, Ms. Park read a statement that said the two leaders had agreed that the “denuclearization of North Korea must be achieved at all costs,” with the emphasis on the nation of North Korea rather than the Korean Peninsula. [Source]

When South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye welcomes Xi Jinping to the Blue House today, it will mark the first time that a Chinese leader will visit Seoul without having first visited Pyongyang.

This is a remarkable development when one considers the close ideological and historic ties between China and North Korea, but it would be premature to assume that Beijing has abandoned Pyongyang for Seoul.

[…] No doubt, Xi’s Seoul visit is a powerful expression of his displeasure with North Korea’s direction under Kim Jong-un, but despite Beijing’s symbolic chastening of Pyongyang and stories that China has cut its export of oil to North Korea, China still places maintenance of North Korea’s stability as a top priority.

South Korean efforts to gain China’s understanding for a South Korean-led reunification of the Korean peninsula and Park’s desire to warm up relations with Beijing may be understandable, but China may not be swayed by Seoul’s logic on Korean reunification as long as South Korea’s alliance with the United States remains central to South Korea. [Source]

On a vast construction site outside this northeastern Chinese city, engineers are working around the clock on a project that could transform the economic—and geopolitical—dynamics of the region: a 223-mile, high-speed rail link to the North Korean border.

The $6.3 billion project is one of three planned high-speed railways designed to bring North Korea closer into China’s economic orbit, even as Beijing supports sanctions aimed at Pyongyang. China is also sinking millions of dollars into new highways and bridges in the area, and the first cross-border power cable.

[…] When it is finished in 2016, the railway under construction near Yanji will cut the journey between the Chinese city of Jilin and the remote border town of Hunchun to just over two hours from almost eight, according to the project’s plans. By 2020, it is expected to boost Hunchun’s population to over one million from 200,000 today thanks to an influx of migrants seeking to profit from border trade.

Work is also continuing on a rail link between the Chinese cities of Shenyang and Dandong—the busiest border crossing—and another connecting Dandong to the Chinese port of Dalian is also due to be finished this year, according to state media. A new $356 million bridge over the border at Dandong is also proceeding as planned. [Source]

While Chinese leaders have not given the government’s growing list of initiatives a label or said they had an overall purpose, Chinese experts and diplomats said Beijing appeared set on shaping Asia’s security and financial architecture more to its liking.

“China is trying to work out its own counterbalance strategy,” said Sun Zhe, director of the Centre for U.S.-China Relations at Beijing’s Tsinghua University and who has advised China’s government on its foreign policy.

[…] President Barack Obama’s pivot – as the White House initially dubbed it – represented a strategy to refocus on Asia’s dynamic economies as the United States disentangled itself from costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

China sees the pivot as an attempt to contain its growing influence, especially given the United States is strengthening its ties with Asian security allies such as Japan and the Philippines, which have bitter territorial disputes with Beijing in the region’s waters. Washington denies this. [Source]

When Chinese President Xi Jinping touches down in Seoul around midday Thursday, he will be landing very much in friendly territory.

Increasingly, South Koreans view the rise of their giant neighbor to the west with a favorable eye, preferring to accentuate the positive as Beijing and Seoul strengthen their political and economic ties.

According to a new survey by the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, a Seoul-based think tank, South Koreans are far more likely to view China as a cooperative partner (61%) rather than as a competitive rival (33%). For Asan, which has conducted a monthly poll of 1,000 South Koreans since January 2013, that is near a high watermark. [Source]

As part of arrangements for the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Seoul, China will send a pair of pandas to South Korea, although it may take up to two years for them to arrive.

“This pair of pandas, along with a sacred ibis that came last year, will be loved by Koreans as a symbol of the two countries’ friendship,” President Park Geun-hye said on Thursday after a summit meeting between the two leaders.

A government official said that because of complicated export and customs procedures, the planning for the delivery of the animals will take between one and two years. [Source]